Thursday, July 30, 2009

Malabar Spinach (Basella alba & rubra) Homegrown Greens

Variously called Malabar or Ceylon Spinach, Basale or Pasalai Keerai, Pui/Poi Saag, etc in the many Indian languages, Basella is a wonderful alternate for the regular spinach. It is used in other Asian cuisines as well.

Basella grows readily during the hot summer months unlike the sensitive spinach which bolts into seeds at the barest whisper of warmth. There are two varieties of basella - the green-stemmed alba and the red-stemmed rubra. Both are delicious and nutritious.

Lovely basella grows readily from cuttings or seeds. These plants grew from a few pieces of the stems I saved from a bunch bought for cooking. They can be rooted in water first or directly in a pot of soil; my experiments proved both methods to be successful. This particular plant is growing well in a large pot - although the vines are getting so long that they need a trellis - some of the leaves are larger than my hand!

Practically all parts of the plants are useful; apparently even the roots are used. The tender vines as well as the leaves. tender stems thick or thin, buds, and berries are delicious. Leaves and stems may be added to any curry, stew or soup. The berries are a prized ingredient in East Indian cuisine and are crunchy even after cooking.

The substantial and thick leaves of basella are somewhat succulent and slightly mucilaginous when raw. Once cooked, there does not seem to be any evidence of the stickiness. I have used regular spinach and basella interchangeably in recipes with great results. Basella is delicious in any recipe using spinach or Swiss chard; use it in any dal, molakootal, Mung bean & Basella Stew, Chettinad Style Spicy Dal, Thai Curry, stir-fry dishes and soups; it worked very well in rice salad too.

10 comments:

girish and i grew malabar spinach too this year. we thought we pretty much killed everything we tried to grow, but this amazing plant proved us wrong. it grows prolifically and is taking over our vegetable bed! i made some molakootal, aaloo palak and even added it to pasta. it came out pretty good.

Thank you Anons, for your visits and comments. Basella or Malabar Spinach is such an easy-to-grow and wonderful plant, it can be grown anywhere even in a small pot, I cannot say enough good things about it; the gains are many - the leaves, tender stems, vine tips, and even the blooms and pearl-like immature seeds are edible! - G